Chapter 8 – Tension Between Friends

“I’m back!” Hakyeon calls.

He can hear Hongbin and Ravi laughing out the back of the shop but it cuts off at his greeting. They both appear, still smiling and with red cheeks. Hongbin stays smiling but Ravi frowns at him, no doubt he could feel how unstable Hakyeon’s magic was right now.

“Hakyeon,” the potion maker greets.

“Hey. How did Hongbin do?”

“He’s really good at making potions,” Ravi praises. “He might get better than you in the future.”

Hongbin’s cheeks get redder and he smiles, embarrassed to be praised by Ravi. He hadn’t really felt like Ravi’s student until now, until Hakyeon had asked for a report. He’s not sure he likes it.

“Right?” Hakyeon grins back.

It embarrasses Hongbin more. He didn’t want to say he was good at potions because he still made a lot of stupid mistakes and he didn’t know that many potions, but he still felt proud.

“I’ll send him over the next time we go away again,” Hakyeon tells Ravi. Hongbin and Ravi nod their agreement and Hakyeon yawns. “Go grab your stuff, Hongbin.”

“Sure, won’t be a minute.”

“Take your time,” Ravi tells him. “Don’t forget anything.”

“Okay, okay,” Hongbin laughs.

He runs upstairs and Ravi’s smile drops instantly. Hakyeon’s also drops, but it’s in response to how serious Ravi had just gotten.

“Hakyeon,” Ravi mutters to the older man. “What are you doing? I couldn’t say anything last time because Hongbin was there, but why did you take on an apprentice?”

Hakyeon folds his arms over his chest. “Why does it matter to you?”

Ravi’s face remains expressionless. He doesn’t want to provoke Hakyeon because he’d lose the fight in a second. Ravi knew that right now Hakyeon’s reserves of deliberate magic would be low and that Hakyeon’s control would be a little off. He guesses that Hakyeon and Leo had gotten back a few days earlier but Hakyeon had been too unstable to travel. Ravi wonders how much Hakyeon had gotten done in the last two weeks.

Despite not wanting to fight with Hakyeon he grips the tiny vial of no-skin in his pocket. “Are you going to kill him too?”

Hakyeon doesn’t answer fast enough and Ravi glowers at him.

 “Are you?” he pushes.

“That’s up to him,” Hakyeon replies finally.

He doesn’t have the energy to have this fight and frankly he didn’t know what to think of Hongbin, after all he’d only known the kid for two days before he’d had to go away.

“He seems pretty against using creatures in potions,” Ravi tells him, hoping to talk Hongbin up in Hakyeon’s mind. He knows it won’t be that easy, that Hakyeon has his reasons for not trusting other sorcerers, but Ravi truly believed that Hongbin was harmless.

In the last two weeks Hongbin had been learning all the different substitutes for major-creatures, despite Ravi telling him that he could use them if he wanted. He hadn’t once complained about how much more difficult the potions were when there were so many more ingredients, he’d just followed Ravi’s instructions and accepted that this is how things were.

Hakyeon feels a little more hopeful at the news. He really was unsure of Hongbin, especially after his last two apprentices, but he wanted to trust him, even if it was for Ravi’s sake.

Ravi watches Hakyeon closely to see if his words had any kind of positive effect but Hakyeon’s face reveals nothing and he hadn’t really expected it too.

“So he’s okay then?” Ravi asks.

“Unless he does something stupid,” Hakyeon begins, “then I don’t need to do anything.”

For now that was good enough because Ravi didn’t think Hongbin would do anything stupid. “Good,” he sighs.

The sound of Hongbin on the stairs shuts them up. He appears with his suitcase and doesn’t notice how tense his two teachers are.

“I’ll definitely come back soon to learn more, Ravi,” he grins.

Ravi feels himself smile in return. “Sure, don’t wait too long.”

He knows it won’t be long before Hakyeon and Leo go away again but he doesn’t mention it.

“Let’s get going,” Hakyeon interrupts. “It’s going to start getting dark soon I don’t want to be attacked by anything.”

Hongbin frowns a little, what did Hakyeon need to be afraid of? He could probably take out any minor creature that attacked them on the walk without even breaking into his reserves. Ravi’s brows pull together and he tells them to wait a minute and then disappears out back.

Hongbin takes this time to ask where Leo is.

Hakyeon smiles. “He’s at home.”

“Oh,” Hongbin mutters. He doesn’t know why Leo hadn’t just teleported here and picked him up the same way he’d dropped him off. Before he can voice this question Ravi is back with two vials. He hands them both to Hakyeon who pockets them without even asking, no doubt he knew what they were just by looking at them.

“Thanks,” Hakyeon smiles gratefully.

It’s still tense between them but neither of them let it get to them. They’d known each other for a long time and been having the same argument for six years, they wouldn’t let it get to them.

“I’ll make you something to help you feel better,” Ravi tells him. It would actually cut off Hakyeon’s magic for a week but it was better than becoming corrupted. He’d feel worse and he’d be defenceless but at least he would recover faster.

“Send Hongbin back soon,” Ravi grins.

“Will do,” Hakyeon replies. He pretends he doesn’t see Hongbin’s blush when he looks at his apprentice. “Let’s go then.”

“Okay,” Hongbin mutters. “Bye, Ravi.”

Ravi says his goodbyes and then waves them off.

During the last two weeks Hongbin hadn’t really been in the town much, mostly because Ravi had kept him busy with potions and helping in the store, but now he took the opportunity to look around.

It was a small town, there was no denying that, and everybody seemed to know everybody. Even Hakyeon got recognised and Hongbin wasn’t surprised by their startled stares and wide, scared eyes. That was just how sorcerers were looked at in this country, especially outside of the capital.

It wasn’t something Hongbin had ever really stopped to think about before because the sorcerers he’d seen and known had revelled in having people avoid them, walked with their heads up. Hakyeon did not. He walked with his eyes on the ground, actively avoiding the busier streets as he led the way to the thin, overgrown path that would take them home. For the first time ever Hongbin wonders what the relationship between normal people and sorcerers actually was.

As they walk Hongbin can’t help noticing how tired Hakyeon looks and Ravi’s promise to make something for him pops up in his head. Hakyeon legitimately looks sick compared to how he’d looked when he’d gone away. Had he gotten sick while he and Leo were away? Hakyeon had told Hongbin that they were ‘going after ingredients’ and then left an hour later after Leo dropped Hongbin at Ravi’s house. Hakyeon had avoided any further questions.

Hongbin is still thinking deeply about sorcerers, people, and Hakyeon when they get to the edge of town. Hakyeon pauses just inside of the forest and pulls out the vials. He hands one to Hongbin who eyes it suspiciously, whenever he made something that was bright green it was usually very acidic.

“What is it?”

“A repellent, creatures will avoid it.”

Hongbin eyes the liquid one more time before drinking it. Almost the second he swallows a small creature sprints away from beneath the undergrowth. Hakyeon sighs at his potion and then drinks it.

“This is just going to make Leo grumpy.”

Leo is grumpy but he’s less of an arsehole than he normally was. He greets Hongbin with a meow but then slinks away to a part of the house where the repellent couldn’t reach him.

For the first week Hongbin is back Hakyeon has him reviewing the things Ravi had taught him. Hongbin notes that Hakyeon was actively avoiding any kind of magic but doesn’t say anything. During the second and third week Hakyeon has Hongbin reading theory on spells.

Ravi drops in several times and every time he does Hongbin gets embarrassingly excited. They spend nearly the whole time together just talking about potions and Hakyeon raises an eyebrow at how comfortable they were around each other. It surprises him because he hasn’t seen Ravi attempt to get close to anybody else before, at least not in the last six years.

What also surprises Hakyeon was that Ravi had been right, Hongbin had pretty much stopped using creatures in potions. Even when Hakyeon suggest that he just do the potion the easy way, Hongbin smiles it off and begins to prepare his pile of substitute ingredients.

One day when Ravi comes over Hongbin is shut up in his library studying for the theory test Hakyeon was giving him on spells. He needed to pass it in order for Hakyeon to even consider teaching him and he was studying hard. Ravi didn’t want to interrupt him and instead settled down in the lounge room, chatting to Leo who tried to pay attention but kept dozing off.

“What was Hongbin’s old teacher like?” Ravi asks Hakyeon suddenly.

“He didn’t tell you?”

“It just never came up,” Ravi shrugs. They’d spoken about so many other things and it had just never come up.

Hakyeon sighs. “His old teacher is probably one of the worst sorcerers out there, I was a little concerned he’d be the same as the other apprentices from there. He’s okay though. He’s adamantly against using major creatures in potions and he won’t go anywhere near one that has top-level creatures in it.”

“But then he won’t be able to do spells…” Ravi notes, a little confused. Wasn’t Hongbin studying for spells right now?

“It’ll just take him longer to learn since his deliberate magic reserves are tiny. He won’t be able to cast big spells or make charms, but I think his focus is more on learning than casting, and on potion making.”

At first Ravi is a little bit surprised that Hongbin had basically given up learning to cast spells, but when he thinks about it a bit more he supposes it was something he should have expected. When he’d been talking to Hongbin that time he’d asked if a sorcerer could just learn potions.

He remembers the curiosity in Hongbin’s eyes whenever Ravi had started working on something new or when he was teaching him about ingredients and their properties. Hongbin was definitely someone driven more by the desire for knowledge than the desire for power, though in magic there wasn’t really a difference, and that was why Ravi knew that Hakyeon would find it hard to trust him.